Why young people are becoming the new face of loneliness in Australia? And what can we do to help? Enter social prescribing.
Thanks to social media, Young Australians live in a world more connected than ever before. However, an increasing number of 15-—to 24-year-olds are experiencing loneliness and feelings of social isolation.
LISTNR journalist Loren Howarth speaks to The Briefing today about loneliness and how to fix it.
She says there’s a new way to address the problem called social prescribing – which connects people experiencing things like isolation, anxiety, low mood and low self-esteem with non-medical services.
This might be things like arts and crafts, sports groups, gardening or volunteering rather than pills.
Doctor Kuljit Singh, GP and Social Prescribing chairwoman at the RACGP, said the practice was fairly new.
“The GP can directly refer to any service that’s available in that suburb where the patient resides. The other option is some places have setups where GPs refer the patient to a link worker or a community connector or a well-being officer. Then they take the patient to the community resources that are available.”
But she says there are also more informal ways of going about it.
“If I were sending someone to a community dance group, I would give them the name, the phone number, the address, ask them to do it as a weekly class for the next six to eight weeks, but I would then book in a follow-up appointment with that patient to make sure that they’re attending, are they gaining any benefits, any questions that need to be answered and stuff as well, and just make sure that they’re on track with it.”
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